How electrons split: New evidence of exotic behaviors
Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Dec 26, 2014 -
Electrons may be seen as small magnets that also carry a negative electrical charge. On a fundamental level, these two properties are indivisible. However, in certain materials where the electrons are constrained in a quasi one-dimensional world, they appear to split into a magnet and an electrical charge, which can move freely and independently of each other.
A longstanding question has b ...
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Breakthrough in predictions of pressure-dependent combustion reactions
Livermore CA (SPX) Dec 26, 2014 -
Researchers at Sandia and Argonne national laboratories have demonstrated, for the first time, a method to successfully predict pressure-dependent chemical reaction rates. It's an important breakthrough in combustion and atmospheric chemistry that is expected to benefit auto and engine manufacturers, oil and gas utilities and other industries that employ combustion models.
A paper describi ...
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HD remote sensing images cover China's landmass
Beijing (XNA) Dec 29, 2014 -
China can now view the entire country's land mass using HD satellite images, it was announced at a national geo-mapping conference held on Friday.
According to a statement issued by the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation, China began capturing remote-sensing images with clear view of objects of a meter in length or smaller since 2012.
By October 2014, su ...
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Life on an aquaplanet
Boston MA (SPX) Dec 29, 2014 -
Nearly 2,000 planets beyond our solar system have been identified to date. Whether any of these exoplanets are hospitable to life depends on a number of criteria. Among these, scientists have thought, is a planet's obliquity - the angle of its axis relative to its orbit around a star.
Earth, for instance, has a relatively low obliquity, rotating around an axis that is nearly perpendicular ...
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Russia Launches Soyuz-2.1b Rocket Carrying Satellite: Defense Ministry
Moscow (Sputnik) Dec 29, 2014 -
Russia has launched a Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with a communications satellite from the Plesetsk space center located in the north of the country, the Defense Ministry's spokesperson told RIA Novosti Thursday.
"On Thursday, December 25, 2014, at 06:01 a.m. Moscow time [03:01 GMT]...a successful launch of a medium-class space rocket "Soyuz-2.1b" was carried out," Col. Alexei Zolotukhin, a ...
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Russia Launches European Communications Satellite Atop Proton-M Rocket
Moscow (Sputnik) Dec 29, 2014 -
A Russian Proton-M space rocket carrying a European Astra-2G communications satellite lifted off Sunday from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan, a spokesman for Russia's space agency Roscosmos said.
"The launch was carried out as planned - at 00.38 Moscow time [21:38 GMT Saturday]," the official said.
The Proton-M, built by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, i ...
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Astra 2G Satellite Roars Into Orbit
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (SPX) Dec 29, 2014 -
SES S.A. reports that the ASTRA 2G satellite roared into space on board an ILS Proton Breeze M booster last night at 03:37:49 Baikonur time (22:37:49 CET and 16:37:49 EST on December 27). After a 9-hour, 12-minute mission, the Breeze M upper stage of the Proton rocket successfully released the ASTRA 2G satellite into geostationary transfer orbit.
ASTRA 2G will be deployed at the 28.2/28.5 ...
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Stretched-out solid exoplanets
London, UK (SPX) Dec 29, 2014 -
Astronomers could soon be able to find rocky planets stretched out by the gravity of the stars they orbit, according to a group of researchers in the United States. The team, led by Prabal Saxena of George Mason University, describe how to detect these exotic worlds in a paper in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Since the first discovery in 1993, more than 180 ...
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Barren Deserts Can Host Complex Ecosystems in Their Soils
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Dec 28, 2014 -
"Biological soil crusts" don't look like much. In fact, people often trample right over these dark, or green-tinted, sometimes raised patches in the desert soil. But these scruffy stretches can house delicate ecosystems as varied and complexly interwoven as that of a lush, tropical rainforest.
Life forms including bacteria, algae, fungi and lichens, as well as plants such as mosses and liv ...
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Russia to Debate US Discrimination of Glonass System in UN: Reports
Moscow (Sputnik) Dec 29, 2014 -
Moscow intends to bring the issue of alleged discrimination against Russia's navigation satellite system GLONASS by the United States to the United Nations, Russian newspaper Izvestiya reported Thursday, citing GLONASS Union President Alexander Gurko.
According to the newspaper, earlier in December US Federal Communications Commission stated it would introduce a compulsory licensing proced ...
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NASA Glenn Research Center Completes Stirling Generator
Cleveland, OH (SPX) Dec 29, 2014 -
Researchers at NASA's Glenn Research Center recently assembled an engineering model Stirling power system using valuable assets that became available after the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG) flight project was cancelled in late 2013.
This second engineering unit, called the EU2, is electrically heated to simulate future potential radioisotope-fueled systems that could be d ...
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Risky Business
Pasadena CA SPX) Dec 29, 2014 -
In April 2013, NASA announced that it was in the early phases of planning a robotic mission to snag an asteroid and haul it into lunar orbit for study. At the time, NASA chief Charles Bolden said that such an asteroid redirect mission represented "an unprecedented technological feat that will lead to new scientific discoveries and technological capabilities and help protect our home planet."
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Mars mission boost welcomed by scientists
Leicester UK (SPX) Dec 29, 2014 -
University of Leicester scientists, who are closely involved in the European mission to Mars -ExoMars- have welcomed support from the Government for the project.
Following the Chancellor's Autumn statement, the UK will play a lead role in Europe's ExoMars mission to the Red Planet. The ExoMars mission is one of the key missions under the remit of the UK Space Agency.
The Government's ...
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Innovative use of Pressurant Extends Messenger's Mission
Laurel MD (SPX) Dec 29, 2014 -
The MESSENGER spacecraft will soon run literally on fumes. After more than 10 years traveling in space, nearly four of those orbiting Mercury, the spacecraft has expended most of its propellant and was on course to impact the planet's surface at the end of March 2015. But engineers on the team have devised a way to use the pressurization gas in the spacecraft's propulsion system to propel MESSEN ...
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Syria vows government jobs for relatives of 'martyrs'
Damascus (AFP) Dec 31, 2014 -
Syria will award 50 percent of vacant government posts to relatives of soldiers and government employees killed or paralysed in the country's conflict, according to a law issued on Wednesday.
The law, decreed by President Bashar al-Assad after passing parliament earlier in the week, comes as the death toll among Syrian government troops grows.
More than 44,200 Syrian soldiers have been k ...
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Top official in China's restive Xinjiang transferred
Beijing (AFP) Dec 31, 2014 -
The second most senior official in China's strife-torn Xinjiang region has been transferred, reports said Wednesday, after the area saw some of its worst violence in decades.
Nur Bekri will be replaced as the area's vice Communist Party secretary by Shohrat Zakir, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Both men are Uighurs, the nine-million-strong Turkic-speaking and mostly Muslim eth ...
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Lithuania detains military officer suspected of spying
Vilnius (AFP) Dec 31, 2014 -
Lithuania said Wednesday it detained a military officer for alleged espionage, possibly for Russia, in the latest Cold War-style incident amid heightened tensions between Moscow and the West.
The air force officer, whose name was not released, is suspected "of spying for a foreign country by providing it with information, including classified data", the prosecutor's office said in a statemen ...
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US senator: enough Iran sanctions support to override veto
Washington (AFP) Dec 31, 2014 -
There is sufficient support for expanded sanctions on Iran in the new Republican-controlled US Congress to override veto threats by President Barack Obama, a senator told radio broadcaster NPR Wednesday.
The Obama administration and other global powers are in the midst of prolonged negotiations with Tehran to end a decade-long standoff over its nuclear activities, which the West sees as effo ...
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US releases five Guantanamo inmates to Kazakhstan
Washington (AFP) Dec 31, 2014 -
The United States has sent five detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay to Kazakhstan, marking a renewed push by President Barack Obama to close the controversial jail.
Two Tunisian and three Yemeni inmates who had spent more than 11 years behind bars without ever being charged in a court arrived in Kazakhstan at 0415 GMT on Wednesday aboard a US military aircraft, the Pentagon said.
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Iran in new deal to boost Iraq army
Tehran (AFP) Dec 31, 2014 -
Iran is to help Iraq rebuild its army under an agreement that could formalise Tehran's military support for its neighbour, which remains under assault by the Islamic State (IS) group.
No details of the pact were released but state television said the two sides had "agreed to continue cooperation in the defence arena with the creation of a national army to protect the territorial integrity an ...
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US adds nine to Iran sanctions blacklist
Washington (AFP) Dec 31, 2014 -
The United States added nine individuals and entities to its Iran sanctions blacklist in a move condemned Wednesday by Tehran as a "blatant violation" of goodwill amid long-running nuclear talks.
The US Treasury named five men from Iran and elsewhere as well as Dubai-based Belfast General Trading for sanctions violations linked to efforts to support the Islamic republic's acquisition of US c ...
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Turkey receives second A400M transport
Istanbul, Turkey (UPI) Dec 31, 2014 -
The second of 10 A400M tactical transport aircraft has been received by Turkey from from the Airbus.
The receipt of the aircraft was reported by Hurryet Daily News, quoting an announcement of the country's Undersecretariat for Defense Industries.
The A400M Atlas is a four-engine turboprop airlifter introduced into service in 2013. It has a cruise speed of 485 miles per hour and a ...
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U.S. military seeks new UAV perception technology
Washington (UPI) Dec 31, 2014 -
The U.S. military is seeking the development of enhanced unmanned aerial vehicle technology for autonomous operations within complex indoor spaces.
The technologies would allow small UAVs - small enough to fit through a window - to fly as fast as 45 miles per hour and navigate without the communications from operators while within a building.
"Birds of prey and flying insects e ...
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USAF inactivating two C-17 squadrons
Scott Air Force Base, Ill. (UPI) Dec 31, 2014 -
Two Air Force squadrons of C-17 transport aircraft are being inactivated over the next two years as a cost-saving measure, the service announced.
The two squadrons - 16 planes in all - are located at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
The inactivation, the Air Force said, is based on President Barack Obama's defense budget for fiscal 2015.
" ...
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US aims to quickly train Iraq forces for anti-IS fight
Taji Base, Iraq (AFP) Jan 01, 2015 -
American and allied soldiers are aiming to rapidly train thousands of Iraqi security personnel in the "bare minimum basics" needed to join the fight against militants who swept Baghdad's troops aside.
The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group spearheaded a major June offensive that overran much of Iraq's Sunni Arab heartland, and while pro-government forces have since regained some ground, swath ...
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